Championship between Bulgarian GM Vesselin Topalov and World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India).Bulgaria's bid is to host the FIDE World Championship Match from 5th to 24th 2010 in Sofia. Bulgaria is not the only candidate for hosting the event. Until this moment there are two official bids – from Singapore and Turkey.

The deadline for submitting bids for the match is 30th September 2009.On 1th October, FIDE will open all bids and on 9th October will announce the winner.

Topalov and Anand will play 12 matches for the title. In case of a draw the winner will be decided in a tie-break of four rapid games.

Vladimir Kramnik won the Zurich Rapid Tournament, finishing with 5/7 points, half a point ahead of the reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Topalov and Ponomariov shared the third place with 4 points. Local favourite Werner Hug managed to draw with Khalifman, Topalov, Kramnik, Karpov and Polgar. This event marked the 200-years anniversary of the first Zurich chessclub. In the champions’ simultaneous exhibition 200 amateur chess players played against eight chess grandmasters - Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Viktor Kortchnoi, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Spassky, Ruslan Ponomariov and Veselin Topalov. Of the 200 games played, four games ended with wins and 35 games ended in a draw.

GM Vassily Ivanchuk from Ukraine won Jermuk 2009 tournament. He won his final game against Vladimir Akopian and take overall victory with 8.5 /13 points. This is his 5th GP win. Levon Aronian beat Ernesto Inarkiev and finished second (together with Gelfand who beat in last round Peter Leko). So Armenian grandmaster has won the overal FIDE Grand Prix Series with one tournament still to be played.

The event was a memorial to former world champion Tigran Petrosian, who held the title from 1963–1969 and would have turned 80 on June 17th this year.

After playing games of round 9 in Jermuk, Rustam Kasimdzhanov joined to Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk at the top of the leaderboard with 6 points. He scored a win over the free-falling Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov.

Third round in Jermuk finished with six draws and only one victory. Only Evgeny Alekseev (Russia)scored a win over his compatriot Ernesto Inarkiev.The standings of the 5th Grand Prix tournament didn’t change much: Aronian, Cheparinov and Leko still lead with 2/3.

Like the first round, there were five draws and two victories. Local favourite Levon Aronian fulfilled expectations of his fans and scored a win with white pieces against over Russian GM Evgeny Alekseev. Russian Dmitry Jakovenko won GM Gata Kamsky (USA). The other games were drawn. After his win in round 1 Ivan Cheparinov made a draw against Vladimir Akopian. The other leader, Peter Leko, also made a draw against Pavel Eljanov.

So after Round 2 Ivan Cheparinov, Levon Aronian and Peter Leko are in early lead with 1.5 points each.

After first round of the FIDE Grand Prix Tournament leader is Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov and Peter Leko from Hungary. Cheparinov won against Russian Dmitry Yakovenko and Leko won against Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia). All other games finished draw.Today are playing games of the second round.

The President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation Stefan Sergiev said in an interview that Bulgaria is preferred to host the WCC match between the current World Champion GM Vishvanatan Anand (India) and Challenger GM Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria). Sergiev added that he had held convesations with the second most important man in FIDE - Berwick Balgabaev and FIDE’s Envoy Extraordinary Assembly of the European Chess Union (ECU) in Kaliteya (Greece). Balgabaev has satisfied that Bulgaria has a real chance to host the forum.

"FIDE relies on us. FIDE believe that India can not cope with the household" said Sergiev. There is and another option for match hosting. This is Grozny - the capital of Chechnya. Conversations are suspended because of military situation in the area. The decision of FIDE will be announced at Congress Kaliteya in October. The prize fund of the tournament will be around 2 million. The deadline for submitting nominations is 30th September.

The advantages of Sofia are reflected in its attempts to organize tournaments on a high level (M-Tel Masters) and praise for the perfect organization of WCC candidates match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky held in Sofia this year.